If 566 

B14 
ICopy 1 






MEMORIAL ADDRESS 



LIFE AND CHARACTER 



JOHN JUDSON BAGLEY, 



DELIVERED BEFORE THE MICHIGAN STATE PIONEER SOCIETY, 

AT THEIR REQUEST, IN REPRESENTATIVE 

HALL, LANSING. 



/ 

GEORGE H. HOPKINS. 



Seventh of June, 1882. 




«-«^ 



DETROIT, MICH.: 
Wm. Graham, Printer, 52 Batks Street. 

1882/ 



4 

-*^» 



MEMORIAL ADDRESS 



LIFE AND CHARACTER 



JOHN JUDSON BAGLEY, 



DELIVERED BEFORE THE MICHIGAN STATE PIONEER SOCIETY, 

AT THEIR REQUEST, IN REPRESENTATIVE 

HALL, LANSING, 



GEORGE H. HOPKINS. 



Seventh of June, 1882. 




DETROIT, MICH.; 

Wm. Graham, Printbr, o2 Bates Street. 

1882. 



Lansing, December 14, 1881. 
Hon. Geo. H. Hopkins, 

Detroit, Mich. 

Dea.r Sir — At a meeting of the Committee of Historians 

and Executive Committee of the State Pioneer Society, held 

at the Capitol on the 6th inst., the following resolution was 

unanimously passed: 

"h ^solved, That the Corresponding Secretary of the State Pioneer 
Society be, and he is hereby directed to correspond with Hon. George H. 
Hopkins, of Detroit, and request from him a memorial paper for publica- 
tion in Vol. IV. of Pioneer Collections in reference to the late Gov. John 
J. Bagley." 

Gov. Bagley was a member of the Society, and such a pa- 
per is very much desired by the committees, and the matter 
was thoroughly discussed by them as to who would be the 
best person to prepare such a paper, and all agreed that you 
were the one. 

lioping a favorable reply from you, 

I am, yours very truly, 

GEO. H. GREENE, 

Corresponding Secretary. 



[The following letter was received in reply to one asking 
when it was expected to publish Vol, IV., referred to.] 

Kalamazoo, December 27, 1881. 
Hon. Geo. H. Hopkins: 

Dear Sir — Mr. Geo. H. Gi-eene, Corresponding Secretary 
of the State Pioneer Society, has forwarded me your letter of 
Dec. 21, inst., in reference to memorial paper of the late Gov- 
ernor Bagley. The 4th volume of " Pioneer Collections of 
Michigan" will not be printed until after the first Wednesday 



in June next. At that time will occur the annual meeting of 
the " State Pioneer Society," at Lansing, and at that meeting 
it will gratify the officers of the Society and thi; people there 
assembled if you will read the memorial paper, which shall 
refresh our memories as to the noble qualities of head and 
heart of one now dead, who was in life the friend of all the 
people of Michigan. 

Very respectfully yours, 

H. G. WELLS, 

Chairman Committee of Historians 

Michigan State Pioneer Society. 



MEMORIAL ADDRESS 

ON THE 

Life and Character 

OF 

JOHN JUDSON BAGLEY, 

BY 

GEORGE H. HOPKINS. 



A Pioneer Society is the Present looking at the Past — 
the Living communing witlithe Dead. As we advance in 
age the memories of our Fathers and Mothers grow more 
and more dear. We delight to recall their deeds and their 
virtues. 

Go visit New England and the Eastern States, anj'' 
pleasant day in summer or autumn, and you shall see the 
pilgrim from the West visiting the home of his father 
You ma}'^ see him in the lonely church-yard, at the graves 
of his ancestors, carefully deciphering on the tomb-stones, 
worn by the hand of time, the inscriptions, rudely carved, 
it may be, telling the story of those lying beneath — born, 
died; birth, death — between the two is gathered all there 
is of history. 

What do the records <f the Pioneer Society show? 
They tell of the toil and privation of him who would 
make for himself a home in the wilderness. Turn- 
ing from the comforts and luxuries of the old home 
— a home to him no longer save in the memories 
of the nast — he seeks towards the setting sun a new 



home, and becomes a Pioneer, with all that word implies 
— and in its meaning it covers all the trials, the suffer- 
ings, the hopes and triumphs of the discoverer in the new- 
found land. With all this labor and privation the Pioneer 
is not an unfortunate man; he is not an unhappy man. 
I doubt if any class of men or women found more real 
enjoyment and pleasure than the Pioneers of our early 
days. The fact that for themselves they chose to forsake 
the old for the new, made their daily toil a pleasure. None 
the less do we owe them. They made it possible for us to 
live in a veritable land of promise. Through their toil 
came our rest. By their pain comes our pleasure. Through 
their want comes our plenty. 

And the duty we owe to them and ourselves as well, 
bids us cherish their memories. The Pioneer Society 
of Michigan, in thus honoring those who but a few 
short months since were of us, honors equally the liv- 
ing present. The pioneer roll of Michigan contains 
the names of many heroes — men and women who toiled 
and rested not — men whose first love and thought was 
for their family and home, the next state and coun- 
try. They loved their state like as the mother loves her 
first-born. Of and among such was Jolin Judson Bagley. 
Himself a pioneer, he came from a race of pioneers. 

John Judson Bagley was born at Medina, Orleans 
county, New York, July 21, 1832. His fatiier, John Bag- 
ley, was born in Durham, Green County, N. Y., Jan. 21, 
1800. His grand-father, John Bagley, was born in Candia, 
New Ham'Dshire, April 21, 1759, and was a descendant 
from the Bagley family who came from England early in 
the 17th century. 

His fathers mother was Olive Judson, a daughter of 
Capt. Timothy Judson, a soldier of the Revolution, and a 
descendant of William Judson, who came from Yorkshire, 
England, in 1634, and lived at Concord, Mass., a few years; 



thence he moved to Stratford, Conn., at the first settlement 
of that town. Rev. Adoniram JudsoD, the noted foreign 
missionary, was a descendant of the same family. 

His grand -father's mother was Sarah Hooker, a direct 
descendant in the third generation of Rev. Thos. Hooker, 
who came from Hartfordshire, England, in 1635, settled in 
Hartford, Conn., and planted the first church in Connec- 
ticut — an eloquenf, able and faithful minister. 

Very soon after the close of the Revolution his grand- 
father, Capt. John Bagley, and his brother, Cutting Bag- 
ley, left their father's home in New Hampshire with their 
young wives, making the journey across the country on 
horseback to Durham, Green County, N. Y., where they 
bought land on the eastern slope of the Catskill mount- 
ains, 18 miles from the Hudson river. The Bagley home- 
stead there was on the bank of a beautiful mountain stream 
which falls in a fine cascade on the farm. 

The brothers built a log cabin and the two families 
lived together several years, until, as their children grew 
up, the farm was divided and two homes made. While 
living on their farm the two young men were visited sev- 
eral times by their father and mother, who made the jour- 
ney from their home in New Hampshire on horseback. 
The last visit was made in a buggy, which was the first 
vehicle of the kind seen in that part of New York. A few 
years later the father of Gov. Bagley moved to Medina, 
N. Y., and subsequently lived in Lockport, N. Y. When 
John was eight years of age his father removed with his 
family to Michigan, stopping a few months at Mottville, 
St. Joseph county, and then settled at Constantine, in that 
county. His father was a tanner in New York, and con- 
tinued in the same business in Michigan. The family 
were in moderate circumstances, and John began his 
business career in a country store in St. Joseph county. A 
short time after we find him an inmate in the home of 



8 

their old family physician, while living in Lockport, N. Y., 
Dr. J. B. Barnes, then living in Ovvosso. For some months 
he remained in Dr. Barnes' family and attended school 
with his children. Shortly after the Bagley family fol- 
lowed John to Owosso, the fatlier entering business with 
Mr. Rufus Colter, and .John being engaged as clerk in the 
store of Dewey & Goodiiue. 

When about sixteen years of age he decided to leave 
Owosso and seek for himself a business engagement in 
Detroit. Friends and acquaintances he had none there, 
but what mattered that to him? Employment was the 
one thing he then sought, confident that all else desirable 
would soon follow. Who was to be his employer, or what 
his employment, were matters of secondary' moment. The 
main thing was an opportunity to work. He had a strong 
hand, a willing heart, and a love for toil — capital, without 
which few succeed, with wiiich few fail. He had not long 
to wait. Arising in the morning from his humble lodg- 
ing, he went at once to the foot of Woodward avenue for a 
view of the river and spent some time there admiring the 
beauty of the stream, to him almost a lake in extent. As 
he watched the evidences of thrift, trade and successful 
business there and in the city behind him, he said to him- 
self, "This is the place for me; I'll find something to do 
here." Turning on his heel, before he had reached Jeff'er- 
son avenue, two streets away, he found what he sought — 
labor. Stopping in front of the store of Isaac S. Miller, 
looking at the display by the open door, the proprietor 
accosted him with, " Young man, what do you want?" He 
replied, "I want work." Mr. Miller invited him into the 
store, and before leaving it he had engaged for a year, 
and did not leave the employment of Mr. Miller till, five 
years after, at the age of twenty-one he entered upon busi- 
ness for himself. 

His mother was a most remarkable woman. The 



9 

proper training of her children for lives of usefulness was 
her constant study and care. She religiously believed 
tliat every deliberate act of the child entered into the 
character of the man. To her it was a sin for the mother 
to neglect or refuse to correct the child when a wrong, 
however slight, had been committed. I cannot better 
show the character of the son than to give you the charac- 
teristics of the mother, and some illustrations of the train- 
ing the boy received. She was not impetuous, but what- 
ever she decided to do, that she did with her might, and 
put her whole heart into the work, yet there was no ap- 
pearance of haste. She put great stress upon the bringing 
up of her boys. She never failed of an opportunity to call 
their attention to the effect that would follow every act in 
their lives. They must black their boots every morning, 
have their collar clean and neat, because every town must 
have some first-class children in it, and all fine children 
give evidence of care. " To black your boots, John, will 
show you are to be counted among the best,." said his 
mother. 

When he began work as a traveling salesman for his 
employer, Mr. Miller, a tobacconist, his mother insisted 
that he take letters from a friend of the family, a clergy- 
maa and leading citizen, to the leading men in the towns 
where he had to stop. He laughed at the idea — going to 
ministers, deacons and teachers when traveling for a to- 
bacco house. She claimed it was the way a man worked, 
and the people he associated with that marked and showed 
character, not the thing worked for. 

About this lime in his hours at home " Uncle Tom's 
Cabin" was read aloud by some member of the family. 
His mother, as the book was read, was thinking of the 
effect of the book on the Nation — on the present civiliza- 
tion. His father would takedown the Bible— get at the 
history of slavery — talk of the cotton crop. Who was go- 



10 

ing to raise the cotton? He thought we " better not get 
too much stirred up." She thought we better not talk, 
but organize a Free Soil party without delay, and know 
for certain the sentiments of every man in Michigan. She 
wanted facts, statistics, and then move. He thought it would 
"all come out right at last." Then Mrs. Bagley would 
straighten up, put down her sewing and answer, " Not un- 
less we shape it." In this way John was taught from in- 
fancy that he was one of the active forces in shaping the 
society and polity of Michigan. 

At one time John had been visiting friends in Cleve- 
land, and soon after his mother said to a mutual friend 
who had met him there: "The Western Reserve was set- 
tled by the best people from New York and New England ; 
the societ}^ is fine, Cleveland is their metropolis, but didn't 
John look equal and superior in manly qualities to them 
all?" "I did so want a boy of mine to inherit the best 
blood back of us." She believed him tiie brightest, strong- 
est minded boy in Michigan. She was the first who had 
faith in him. 

When quite a lad his mother had given him directions 
as to some marketing for the table, and he was to send up 
the articles at once. He was busy, or thought a little delay 
would be of no account, so waited till he came for dinner 
and brought them himself. Soon as he met his mother 
he saw that he had made a mistake, and as a penalty 
offered to pay for the articles from his little pocket store. 
She rose from her seat, stood tall and commanding, and 
replied, "John, it is not money I care for; it is the forma- 
tion of your character, that is forming every day by every 
act; you would not treat your employer with such disre- 
spect for his wishes; you shall not your mother. Your 
mother is grieved that a son of hers could be so negligent 
of others' plans and wishes. I wish you to correct all such 
habits. I do not want you to weave any such traits into 



11 

your character." At another time when John had been 
givitioj an aceoiint of some adventure she thought he put 
in several things that detracted I'rom the story, and ex- 
plaining it to him, said : " You must not open your mouth 
and let everything run off your tongue as ,it pleases. 
Choose what you will say — do what you will do Do as 
much as you will do, no more — never drift. A human 
being must direct his tongue, as well as his feet, to be a 
power." 

At one time his mother was correcting him for some 
little fault. He turned as he went out the door and said, 
" But, mother, I only do it once in a while," She followed 
him out and said, "Come back," and in the walk beside 
the house talked to him gently, but severely, on holding 
such a sentiment, as if "doing a wrong once in a while 
was not a sin." " Would I trust a servant who stole only 
once in a while?" She left him; he stood leaning against 
the side of the house, thinking for a time ; then turning 
to a young friend who had witnessed the interview, said: 
" If I could be such a man as mother wants me to be, what 
a splendid man I would be." "She is a Roman Cornelia; 
it is not an easy thing to be a son of such a woman." So 
he went whistling out of the yard. 

" This superior woman was a thoroughly educated girl," 
writes a friend. "She not only owned the volumes of the 
English classics, but had them when a girl, and was famil- 
iar with them early in life. She was born and bred in an 
educated family. In the wilds of Michigan it seemed 
useless culture. She did not live to see it shape her chil- 
dren's lives." But the seeds had been sown, and the life of 
Gov. Bagley shows how deeply they took root. The same 
writer continues: "She liked centralization and order. 
In oft-repeated visits to their house, and their visits to my 
father's, I heard discussions which taught me much of his- 
tory and the relations of Church and State, the ideas a 



12 

people held gradually shaping its institutions. She laid 
great stress upon the importance of individual opinion 
and belief, however humble the person. She almost inva- 
riably silenced her opponent. She carried heavy guns, 
loaded with learning and authority. * * * The great 
loving heart of John Bagley, and yet his respect for insti- 
tutions to properly direct human action, was the result of 
his home training and his parents' character. When but 
a boy, but doing the work of a man, he took time to read 
aloud to his parents from standard books on subjects 
of vital importance to society. His mother's wishes dur- 
ing restless boyhood was his law, and this was his sal- 
vation amid great temptations. He could not be only a 
business man — the habits of his youth directed him. 
Politics was not simply getting offices, but a politician was 
one to give form to our civilization. When a boy he was 
greatly interested in the history of governmental affairs 
of the Anglo-Saxon races, and the growth of the power in 
people to form institutions fitted to aid them to enlight- 
ened civilization. So his religion was a rebinding of indi- 
viduals and organizations to that which was true, good 
and helpful. No creed that did not recognize that Hu- 
manity was divine, in the image of the Creator, could 
command his respect. He believed in the inspiration of 
to-day, and so honestly was compelled to leave the church 
he was baptized in, for that was an institution resting on 
ancient inspiration. He could not repeat, ' there is no 
good in us,' but ' all poor miserable creatures,' when his 
mind and heart disbelieved it." 

Born and reared as an Episcopalian — but at the same 
time taught to have for himself convictions and to follow 
them — in the full strength of his manhood his religion was 
too broad to be bound and fettered by any creed. Think- 
ing it better for ever}' one to have a church home he con- 
nected himself with the Unitarian, as more nearly ex- 



13 

pressing his ideas of what a church should be, though his 
interest was not confined to that denomination. Wher- 
ever good men and women met and worshiped the living 
God there was his church. Such he was ever ready and 
willing to join in every good word and work. 

He had a deep and abiding faith in the fatherhood of 
God and the brotherhood of men. To him the Father's 
infinite care was ever present everywhere. 

The following lines of the poet he so much loved he 
used to often repeat : 

' ' And so beside the silent sea 

I wait the muffled oar ; 
No harm from Him can come to me 

On ocean or on shore. 
I know not where His islands lift 

Their froyiided palms in air. 
I only know I cannot drift 

Beyond His love and care." 

We will let his own words tell of his convictions and 
belief. The following extracts from his letters written 
when a young man give a correct insight into his charac- 
ter, and show a mind full of noble aims and correct views 
of the highest duty of mankind, and that the boy in the 
village school or the country store, the young man behind 
the desk or as a traveling salesman had found time to 
gather pearls when others were content with moss. To 
him the book of nature was ever open and he read the 
pages eagerly and intelligently : 

"Jan. 16th, 1853, Sunday. 
* * * It is a beautiful morning. The sun is shining 
on the frosty grass, and as the frost gradually disappears, 
and trickles down in drops of water, it teaches me that we 
too, should follow the example of the sun, and shed the 
genial influence of a kind word and a smile, to make glad 
the heart of the unfortunate and sorrowful. A cheerful 



14 

face, and a word kindly spoken, has melted the cold and 
cheerless frost from many a heart frozen by the chilling 
winds of sorrow. I have often thought how much better 
was a kind and sympathizing heart than the wealth of 
the world. It will secure friends that money will not buy 
or borrow. When I am dead and gone, I would rather 
that one should stand over my grave and say, ' Here lies 
one who, when others crushed, gave me a helping hand, 
one who I can never forget for his friendship,' than all the 
marble monuments that wealth could rear — emblazoned 
with my virtues. * * * 

Detroit has seemed as if it would always bemy home. 
* * * Here I want to live and die." 

"Jan. 22d, 1853, Sunday Eve. 
" I have been reading lately the life and letters of Han- 
nah Moore. * * * Have also been reading one of Mr. 
Colton's works, " Deck and Port." He is one of my favor- 
ites. * * * J expect to settle down and attend to busi- 
ness at home. I wish that business to be sufficiently lucra- 
tive to live well. I want a happy home. I want a happy 
and contented heart. I want friends in shade as well as 
sunshine — friends all the time. Here ray wants cease; 
my ambition is not great. If Caesar's ambition had been 
no greater he would never have felt the dagger of Brutus." 

" Feb. 13, 1853. 
" There are times in every one's life, I believe, be they 
Jew or Gentile, when they feel better than at others, and 
feel more religious, if I may use the v/ord. * * * "pjig 
same sort of feeling I used to have when quite little, when 
I would ask mother to pray for Fred and me before going 
to sleep. Tuose prayers come back to me now, and like 
the streamlet from the spring, seem to have gathered 
strength daily until it has become a mighty river. * * * 



15 

Mother said to me this morning, 'John, do you never de- 
ceive your wife in regard to your business.' * * * j 
began Hfe young, and have done well so far. My ambi- 
tion has been to be a good man, a kind man, a good busi- 
ness man, and a successful man. That I shall succeed, I 
dare not doubt. Still, I do not feel lifted up'' with my 
success, but feel to thank God, who has thus far led me, 
and my parents, who, when young, instilled good princi- 
ples in me, and who, as I have grown older, gave their 
advice, their counsel, their example and tiieir good wishes. 
That none of these may ever desert me is my earnest hope ; 
that as long as I continue to ' act well my part ' they will 
continue with me I do not doubt." 

" Belvidere, 111., March 7, 1853. 

*» * * "I have been traveling over the broad prai- 
ries of Illinois for the past two days, seeing siglits that I 
never before witnessed in Michigan or elsewhere. My 
ideas of prairies had been formed from the small ones I 
had seen in Michigan. But the prairies of Illinois seem 
boundless; from Chicago to Rockford — a distance of ninety 
miles — it is all one vast prairie, with only an occasional 
grove of trees to be seen. * * * Still, give me my own 
home — the home almost of my whole life, so far, and I 
hope my home always. The forests of Michigan are to me 
a grander sight than these plains, and the thundering of 
the wind among the trees of my own state is sweeter music 
to my ears than the gentle, love-like melody that sweeps 
through the tall grass of the prairie." 

" July 1853. 

" * * * to one whose life lias been profitably 
spent, there can be no greater happiness in old age than 
to look back upon the past, and trace each year as it has 
flown by, each marked with some good deed or action. 

I sometimes think I am too sentimental, (as it is called) 



16 

and that I think too much of those things, and too little 
of my business and tiie daily duties of life. I hope it is 
not so." 

" July 24th, 1853. 

" To-day is my birthda3"^only twenty-one, and it seems 
as if I were twenty-five. Tiie head is more than twenty- 
one, but the heart is younger, and I hope always will be. 

Being in business at so early an age, and being forced 
to assume responsibilities far beyond my age, make me 
feel and appear older thi'ji I am. * * * 

To many twenty-one is the happiest year of their life. 
Tliey consider that they are men, not boys, and in many, 
too many instances, that they are nolonger bound to par- 
ents or family, but are rid of all legal and moral obliga- 
tions to them. With me it is different. I have felt and 
acted as a man for many years, and have and shall* al- 
ways feel toward my parents, that I am bound to them by 
every tie that always had existed. God grant that noth- 
ing may ever change my feelings toward them. * * * * 

I have been thinking to-day how much I owed to the 
best of mothers. All that I am and all that I expect to be 
that IS good came from her. Still how little have I done 
to repay her. True — I have loved iier, but not half 
enough. She has often told Fred and me that having 
two such good boys repaid her for all that siie had ever 
done lor us, but how much better boys we could be if we 
had our lives to live again." 

One Sunday afternoon in July, 1863, he writes "if man 
had made this world and framed its laws, [ wonder if we 
would have had a Sabbath. Selfishness, love of money, 
and accumulation of wealth, would have deprived us of 
such a day. Did it ever seem to you that the sun shone 
pleasanter, and the air seemed more pure Sunday morn- 
ing than on other days? * * * Direct your next letter 
to Detroit. The first of August I go into business. The 



17 

goal for which I started six years ago has been reached. 
Shall I beany happier? I think not, for it is not busi- 
ness or money that makes happiness. Money does not 
buy it, or position f^ommand it. It is only to be found in 
the quieter path of everyday life, in the duties of each 
hour and in our own heart. I shall be more content, and 
perhaps indirectly it will make me happier. Not that it 
will change my heart, but it may place within my power 
the means of doing good to myself, my family and my 
neighbors. If I am ever to be the possessor of wealth my 
earnest prayer is, that it may not harden my heart or sear 
my conscience, but that they may be left young and fresh, 
as I sincerely believe they are now — alive to the necessi- 
ties of others, and the faults of my own nature." 

" Sabbath Afternoon, April 2, 1854. 

* * * " My heart shall alway be young, and I am 
sure yours can never grow old. The body may grow old, 
the step be feeble, the sight grow dim, and the hand for- 
get its cunning; but 'the heart! the heart is a heritage, 
that keeps the old man young.' I have sometimes thought, 
since my residence in the city, and since business with its 
cares and anxieties has seized hold of me, that I did not 
love nature as I used to do — that I was growing more fond 
of money, and less fond of the beautiful in this beautiful 
world — that some of the well-springs of human kindness 
in my heart were being sealed up — that the milk of human 
kindness was growing sour. Still, in reality I do not 
think so, and I earnestly pray that it may never be so. 

* * * I realize that I am no longer a boy playing 
amid the tlovvers of the forest, or dabbling in the waters of 
tlie St. .Joe, gathering knowledge from Webster's spelling book, 
or gathering nuts from the tall hickory trees that surrounded 
our home. I know that hereafter life will be a constant 
toil intermingled with much pleasure; I know that I am 



18 

afloat on life's troubled watery and must seize tlie oar, and 
row my own bark. Still I fondly trust that there is some- 
where on the banks of life's stream a harbor and a haven 
of rest, where I can safely anchor, lay down my oar, and 
be happy in the knowledge, that I have done my duty. 
I know that ' Life is real, life is earnest,' and that we are 
not sent here to dream but to work." 

"April 9, 1854. 

* * * "To-day I have been dreaming of the past- 
old remembrances, old times, old scenes boyish plays 
and boyish hardships, boyish loves and boyish hates. I 
do love to look back and think of the good times. The 
spelling schools and the walk home — the Saturday after- 
noons, devoted to play, the master's ruler and the fires we 
used to kindle with it, the snow balling and ball playing, 
the prizes for being at the head, and the shame for being 
at the tail of the class. Then the unpretending church, 
without steeple or bell, without cushions or carpets, yet 
still I love it more than any of our palaces. How oft have 
I sat and listened to ' Old Hundred ' or ' Corinth,' sang, I 
thought then, as no one bin our choir could sing it. The 
old fashioned tuning fork, and the voice of the leader. I 
can almost hear it now. Well! well! the church and the 
school house are gone — :ind fall one-half of their occu- 
pants are gone too. Perhaps they are singing ' Corinth 
to-day around the throne." * * * 

" November, 1854. 

* * * " Have you ever read or seen Miss Strick- 
land's ' Lives of the Queens of England ?' I saw a copy of 
them (eight volumes) in one of our boo^ stores a few weeks 
ago, and for a week past have felt of my purse-strings 
every day to see if I could buy them. I want them very 
much, as I have read part of them in spare moments I 
could catch. They are certainly the most delightful books 



19 

I have seen lately. The only time I feel my poverty, or 
really think I am poor, is in a book-store or picture-gal- 
lery. I tiiink, and thiak, look at thiy and that book or 
picture, feel of my purse, button up my coat, stare old pov- 
erty in the face and walk off, dreaming of the 'good time' 
that they say ' is coming.' * * * 

If we can bring smiles in place of tears, or joy in 
place of sorrow, to one erring or unfortunate heart, will it 
not be fulfilling more than our mission here? 

' A poor man's tear dropped o'er the grave 
Blots out many a sin, recorded in the book of life.' " 

To a young friend leaving college he writes: 

"Detroit, May 1, 1857. 

"My Dear B * * * Now that you are about 

lautiching your bark upon the stormy ocean of life, be sure 
before you do so that all is right. Have every seam and 
crack well secured. Let the masts be well set and the sails 
well sprung. Take truth for your compass and honesty 
for your rudder; let it be well ballasted, and with a clear 
conscience for a cable and virtue for your anchor, I doubt 
not that you will ride every st»)rm in safety, and be safely 
landed in the Haven above when you come to your jour- 
ney's end." 

In November, 1856, soon after the election of Buchanan, 
he wrote to a young friend who had been stumping the 
State of New York in oehalf of the Democratic ticket: 

"Although with Fillmore's aid you have elected your 
candidate, still you are beaten. Kansas a slave state beats 
you in the Nortli, and Knnsas a free state beats you at the 
South. For the Republican party there is a great and 
glorious future. The great principle of the non-extension 
of slavery must prevail. The first skirmish has almost 
defeated you, and although forced to retire from the field, 



20 

we have succeeded in forcing your outposts and have slain 
your first generals and disabled your best troops. 

" Thank God, Gen. Cass is a defunet institution. His 
own home repudiates him by 20,000 paper bullets. Pierce, 
too, is forsaken by liis own state. Everywhere, where 
schools and newspapers have found their way, you are 
beaten. 

'"Education is the bane of Democracy,' said a Demo- 
cratic member of Congress from this state, and for once he 
told the truth." 

The young man of 24 spoke the words of prophecy. 
Though engrossed by the cares of a business which he 
but a short time before had undertaken for himself, he 
found leisure to read the signs of the time, and with a keen 
study of cause and effect he saw the impending conflict, 
and was preparing himself and neighbors for it. In Au- 
gust, 1861, he writes a friend (a democrat) in Iowa: 

" Dear P 1 was glad to see you would not take the 

treasonable and seditious stand attempted to be foisted on 
the Democracy of Iowa by the state convention. All honor 
to you. I hope you may always exert every power to up- 
Iiold the government and its administrators. I think wo 
shall have no party but the party of the Union. I have 
forgotten all the party I ever had." * * * 

His strong innate love of right and justice made him 
from the first sound of warlike preparation, a staunch 
supporter of Lincoln and his administration, though at 
the Chicago Convention, when Lincoln was nominated, 
he was there as a devoted adherent of Mr. Seward, felt 
his defeat keenly, and was fearful that the party had 
made a mistake. 

During the sad days of the war he seemed to live a 
double life. All the time and energy that any man should 
give to business he gave to his, and yet he seemed to de- 
vote all his time to his party, his State and his country. 



21 

A leader in all measures for the advancement of the cause 
he held so dear, he was frequently at Washington and 
with the armies in the field — giving aid, comfort and 
council where most needed. To him every wounded 
Michigan man was a friend and brother, and he rever 
was so happy as when administering to their wants. His 
letters to friends show that he then clearly saw what time 
soon developed. One extract must suffice: 

Detroit, Sept. 29th, 1862. 

" Dear S — I returned yesterday from a four weeks 
trip with the army ; followed you from post to post, from 
spot to spot, without catching you, * * * I arrived on 
the battlefield of Antietam Wednesday noon, but was en- 
gaged all of the evening and Thursday, caring for our 
wounded soldiers. Friday I started early to find you, but 
after getting near where I supposed you were, heard you 
were on the march for the river. As I had to return my 
ambulance Friday night, I turned back reluctantly. I 
heard however you were not hurt in any way, or I should 
not have turned ray face homewards. 

I have come home utterly disgusted with McClellan, 
doubting his capacity or his loyalty. He should have 
annihilated the rebel army on Thursday ; why he did not, 
the coming pen of histor}'- alone will tell. 

My theory is, that the training of West Point, that has 
always looked upon the North as common, and the Soutli 
as the aristocracy, still thinks the same. They do not 
mean to be utterly defeated, if they are compelled to go in- 
to an engagement, but they do not mean to defeat the enemy 
beyond their power to recuperate, and thus keep the thing 
along, until the power and energies of both sides are de- 
stroyed, and then patch up a dishonorable peace. I may be 
wrong. I may not be a judge, but I am thoroughly con- 
vinced that Thursday ought to have seen the surrender of 



22 

the rebel army. They should never have been permitted 
to take a wagon or gun across the river, nor get across 
themselves, except as stragglers. I fear we are gone. God 
alone can save us, and I hope those who have the com- 
plete and perfect faith I liave not, may by their prayers 
secure his aid. 

The worst is too, that our people are discouraged. 
This is the worst of all, but it is too true." * * 

The family friend from whom we have quoted says : 
" When he was sixteen years old, visiting at my father's 
house in Jackson, Mich., he had listened to a theological 
debate on punishment. He was then the size of a com- 
mon man. He went out into the yard agitated, distressed 
— but soon turned to his mother, saying, ' I am going over 
to the State Prison this afternoon to study punishment as 
we administer it.' He asked me to go with him and I 
went. He blocked out what he thought ought to be the 
duty of the State to criminals and unfortunates. He had 
loudly and utterly repudiated the Divine's (j) notions that 
day, that God collected evil together and permitted a 
Devil to drag them down lower. On the little bridge over 
the river near the prison, he stopped and stamped down 
his foot vehemently, ' no man,' he said ' can grow better 
with onl}?^ stone walls piled up, by man's ingenuity, about 
him. Let a criminal see a sprig of grass grow daily,' 
(' Picciola,' the French story was not then written) 'or 
some ants build their nests; let him watch how their in- 
stinct subverts the lesser good to the greater, that the}^ 
may exist and resist enemies; let him see anything natural 
growing, and he will see how God governs in Michigan, 
how God always works good out of evil. ' The wrath of 
man shall serve God and the remainder will he restrain. 
He will not gather it and increase it.' He was thoroughly 
awakened and in earnest. He always thought the wrath 
of that minister that day awoke him, though but a boy, 



23 

and switched him on to a human track. His elders 
thought it was onl}^ the overflow of a big kind hearted 
boy, but those who saw and heard him that afternoon un- 
derstood why he wanted to be Governor of the State. He 
desired lo work with the best wisdom he could comprehend. 
It was his mission to make real his ideal. He did not 
care to 'plow and plow but never sow.' After he had 
knowledge he wanted a legitimate sphere to 'act out what 
he knew.' 

Such men do not come by accident. It took mauy 
generations of earnest, industrious, virtuous people before 
such a man could be born. Then an educated mother, 
with faith in the divinity of her child, with suitable train- 
ing, was the means in God's hand to bring it about. 

Last Christmas he sent a boy a present of Hittell's 
* History of Culture,' and wrote in it, very character- 
istically the Persian verse, 

* Who learns and learns and acts not what he knows, 
Is one who plows and plows but never sows.' 

Those who were intimate with John Bagley, remember 
how he always had an appropriate quotation at hand — 
usually a few lines of poetry putting much sense in small 
space. This was a habit his mother strove patiently to 
form in his early youth. She would ask, ' My son, what 
permanent acquisition to your memory have you made 
to-day?' .loking'ly at his tea table in late years, in memory 
of his stately mother's question, he would draw from his 
vest pocket some fine sentence from a speech or lines from 
a poem cut out of a newspaper during the day, and say, 
' Here is my permanent acquisition to my memory to-day.' 

The mother had long been silent but the habit con- 
tinued to enrich. If that mother had asked her son how 
much money he had made he might have been only a 
business man, but he would not have had that well 
informed mind, and his friends would not through his life 



24 

found him a mine of information, refined wit, or been 
served with the best sayings of the wisest minds. Persons 
with him were impressed with the largeness of heart and 
mind, but forgot his wealth or his power. His mother died 
before he was called to any place of trust, but she had a 
faith that ' the State will be the better for the lives of my 
sons.' 

Her faith was to John an inspiration to press on and 
gain all his mother would want him to be." 

Years later he wrote: 

" Detroit, Jan. 8, 1880. 

" Dear M * * * j ^Jon't agree with you about 

Jesus. That is to say, I see no reason why I shouldn't 
celebrate Washington's birthday, because 1 think Lincoln 
was a greater man, I don't take any stock in the miracu- 
lous Jesus or the atoning Jesus, or the son Jesus. I tiiink 
the idea connected with him of human brotiierhood, good 
will to men, worth celebrating. The manger business 
suits me. It shows the worth of poverty to common folks 
— of plain people. Whether it be myth or fable, or real 
history, I care not. The thought that the poor are neces- 
sary, that the reforms of the world come from the bottom, 
is the grand idea connected with Jesus. If Abraham Lin- 
coln had been rich, or a graduate of Yale, or a philosopher, 
he would never have been the martyr. Rail splitters 
make martyrs and heroes and saints. The others have 
their spheres and are necessary, but these are God-born. 

Your brother, 

JOHN J. BAGLEY." 

The training of the inother and the spirit of the boy are 
shown in a school oration delivered at White Pigeon when 
about twelve years old. The subject chosen was "The 
importance of improving the season of youth." I give 
a single sentence: "Now is the time wlien, in the 



25 

spring of life, when health sparkles in your eyes, when 
your blood flows purely in your veins, and when the 
spirits are gay as the morning, to mould your future ac- 
tions, habits and dispositions. On the manner in which 
you spend your early days depends your future destiny." 
His school days were few, and ended when he was four- 
teen; during a portion of the time between eight and four- 
teen he had attended school at Constantine, White Pigeon 
and Owosso ; but to have known his mother was a liberal 
education ; and from her home teachings he graduated 
with the highest honors. 

Little can be said of the public career of Gov. Bag- 
ley that is not already well known to the people of Michi- 
gan. His love for good government and a hearty interest 
in all that pertained to it was a part of his nature. He 
could no more remain a passive citizen, than the blade of 
grass could cease to grow under the genial influence of 
sun and rain. From early boyhood he took a deep in- 
terest in the political discussions of the day. But he was 
not content to follow where others led. He weighed care- 
fully the opinions of others — formed his own convictions 
and followed them. He believed it to be tlieduty of every 
person to have an opinion on every subject upon which 
he should be called to decide, and insisted that every man 
who had a ballot should cast it. Nothing so displeased 
him as to find at the close of election day that some friend 
or neigiibor had neglected to vote. He believed that the 
safety and perpetuity of our institutions depended upon 
the intelligence of the common people, and he would 
have every individual act as though lie himself was a part 
of tiie government. Long before he had attained his ma- 
jority he was a pronounced whig, although his father was 
a democrat, and was a republican from the organization of 
that party. 

Soon after he cast his first vote he was elected a mem- 



26 

ber of the board of education from the third ward of the 
city of Detroit. Then his friends proposed that he canvass 
the ward as a candidate for alderman. The opposition 
was largely in the majority and nominated their strongest 
man, the late Gen. A. S. Williams. He believed in suc- 
cess, and said to his party friends that whoever was the 
candidate, that man must be the unanimous choice of the 
party — if there was no opposition to his nomination he 
would make the run and be elected. They took him at 
his word, and the result was a surprise to his friends and a 
disappointment to his opponents. He often spoke with 
pride of this first victory. 

As a member of the council he recognized the necessity 
of a more thorough and efficient police system for the city. 
Fo^him to see was to act, and he rested not till the plan 
which he drafted was a law and the present metropolitan 
police system organized. He was one of the original com- 
missioners and remained on the board until nominated by 
the Republicans for Governor in 1872. When the news 
of his death reached Detroit the board of police commis- 
sioners placed a fitting testimonial on their records in 
which they say, "To him is mainly due the credit of the 
inception and organization of the metropolitan police de- 
partment, and to him it is largely indebted for whatever of 
usefulness and efficiency it has since attained. He brought 
to this work the same qualities of mind and heart which 
have since made him prominent in the State, and in the 
councils of the principal reformatory, charitable and edu- 
cational institutions; and in the various opportunities 
occurring to him in public and private Ufe, he was always 
the faithful friend and trusted adviser of the department." 

His love for his party and his great executive ability 
made his services in great demand by his party associates, 
and long before his name was mentioned in connection 
with any State office he was the recognized leader of liis 



27 

party in the State. Elected Governor of the State in 1872 
and re-elected in 1874, his four years Governorship seem 
to you but as yesterday. Into that office he carried the 
same intelligent force that had made his many business 
ventures a success. For him to be Governor of the State 
was not simply to occupy a position of honor and trust for 
an allotted four years and then give way to another. To 
him it meant incessant, well directed labor. And he left 
such an example that hereafter to be Governor of Michi- 
gan is no easy task. There is not a State institution that 
did not receive from him an awakening. 

He recognized the tendency of institutional life to be 
of itself retrograding, and hence the necessity of constant 
watchfulness on the part of the State. The State must 
care for its institutions or soon the institutions would cease 
to care for the State. 

As Governor, he felt that he represented the State — not 
in a narrow, nor egotistical way, but in the same sense 
that a faithful trusted confidential agent represents his 
employer, and that as the Executive of the State he was 
her "attorney in fact." And his intelligent thoughtful 
care will long continue the pride of the people he so much 
loved. 

He was ambitious. Ambitious for place and power, 
as every noble mind is ambitious, because these give oppor- 
tunity. However strong the mind and powerful the will, 
if there be no ambition, life is a failure. He was not 
blind to the fact that the more we have the more is 
required of us. He accepted it in its fullest meaning 
He had great hopes for his State and his country. He 
had his ideas of what they should be. With a heart 
as broad as humanity itself, with an intelligent, able 
and cultured brain, the will and the power to do; he 
asked his fellow-citizens to give him the opportunity to 
labor for them. Self entered not into the calculation. His 



28 

whole life was a battle for others; and he entered the con- 
flict eagerly and hopefully. 

His noble, generous nature made his innumerable bene- 
factions a source of continuous pleasure. Literally, to him 
it was " more blessed to give than to receive." 

His greatest enjoyment was in witnessing the comfort 
and happiness of others. Not a tithe of his charities were 
known to his most intimate friends, or even to his family. 
Many a need}'^ one has been the recipient of aid at an 
opportune moment, who never knew the hand that gave. 

At one time a friend had witnessed his ready response 
to some charitable request, and said to him: "Governor, 
you give away a large sum of money ; about how much 
do your charities amount to in the course of a year?" 
He turned at once and said: "I do not know, sir; I 
do not allow myself to know. I hope I gave more this 
year than I did last, and hope I shall give more next year 
than I have this." This expressed his idea of cliarity, 
that the giving should at all times be free and sponta- 
neous. 

Anything like a stated amount at stated intervals, or 
at stated times, was making charity a mere matter of busi- 
ness — a cool calculation of dollars and cents. Literally, 
his left hand did not know what his right hand was doing. 

His state papers were models of compact, business-like 
statements, bold, original, and brimful of practical sug- 
gestions, and his administration will long be considered 
as among the ablest in this or any other State. 

He had, probably, a larger circle of personal acquaint- 
ances throughout the State than any other man. He be- 
lieved in the people, and the people loved and believed in 
him. He was proud of his Pilgrim parentage, and for 
many years took especial delight in his visits to New 
England, and they were so many and frequent that to 
certain portions of Massachusetts and New Hampshire his 



29 

massive form and kindl}^ face were almost as familiar as 
to the people of his own State. He visited Plymouth Rock 
with a feeling akin to that with which the devotee visits 
Rome. 

During his leisure hours from early life, and especially 
during the last few years, he devoted much time to be- 
coming acquainted with the best authors. Biography was 
his delight; the last he read was the "Life and Work of 
John Adams," in ten volumes. 

In all questions of business or public affairs he seemed 
to have the power of getting at the kernel of the nut in 
the least possible time. In reading he would spend 
scarcely more time with a volume than most persons 
would devote to a chapter After what seemed a cursory 
glance, he would have all cf value the book contained. 
Rarely do we see a business man so familiar with the best 
English authors. He was a generous and intelligent pa- 
tron of the arts, and his elegant home was a stud}^ and 
pleasure to his many friends, who always found there a 
hearty welcome. At Christmas time he would spend days 
doing the work of Santa Claus. Every Christmas eve he 
gathered his children about him, and taking the youngest 
on his lap, told some Christmas story, closing the enter- 
tainment with "The Night Before Christmas," or Dickens' 
" Christmas Carol." 

His health had always been of the robust, vigorous 
kind, and ten years ago he seemed to have force and energy 
enough to last a century. But ceaseless labor and toil 
will surely tell on the strongest constitution, and the man 
who had not known a sick day found that he was no ex- 
ception. 

In the winter of 1876-77 he felt the first indications 
that his strength was giving way, and at no time after- 
wards was he a well man. His strong constitution and 



30 

vigorous will made a gallant fight, but each year saw his 
health gradually failing. 

In September, 1880, he had a slight stroke of paralysis, 
and from this never fully recovered. Early in the spring 
of 1881 he decided to try the climate of the Pacific Slope 
in the vain hope that change of air and scenery would be 
to him as the healing waters. 

But disease had fastened her fatal coils about him. 
None knew it better than he, and in speaking of his con- 
dition at this time he said, " I have not lived long; but I 
have lived a great deal too much. I was managing an 
extensive business before I was much more than a boy. 
Indeed, I had no boyhood, I skipped it ; I sprang from 
childhood into the cares and work of middle age, and 
have never taken a holiday. I had done the work of a 
long life before I was thirty, and now I find myself spent 
before I am fifty, although I started with a capital of 
vitality that should have lasted me till eighty." 

The journey to San Francisco he enjoyed as much as 
his remaining energies would permit, but as he approached 
the " golden gate " his strength seemed almost gone .A few 
days' rest and he was almost himself again, but as the days 
lengthened his strength diminished. Hij relish for en- 
joyment which the bracing air, new scenes and new 
faces brought him was keen, but the strength would 
each day soon give out. The long drives became shorter 
— hours of enjoyment grew less. The once strong frame 
which had befol-e asked for toil now demanded — rest, rest. 
But there, as everywhere, his nature remained the same — 
and strangers became friends — the acquaintance of a few 
weeks almost like the friends of a life-time. When too 
weak to leave his room congenial friends would call, and 
many a pleasant hour be passed, profitable alike to each. 
He realized his condition perfectly, but there was so little 
of the invalid in his nature that to his friends he seemed 



SI 

like a man with a wounded arm, who for a few days was 
compelled to remain indoors, and his cheerfulness never 
deserted him. 

The great change which he saw nearing each day 
brought to him no fears and few regrets. It would have 
pleased him to remain with his friends a few years longer, 
but principally because he feared they would miss his aid 
and counsel. As the end came he said, thinking no doubt 
of the kind admonitions of the loving mother he was so 
soon to meet, "I think the world is a little better for my 
having lived in it ; I have not done as much good as I 
ought to have done, nor as much good as 1 might have 
done; I would like to live a little longer and do a little 
more." But his work was ended. Ended? No! Just 
begun. 

y^he good men do lives after them?**' 

In the sweet memory of the strong man, the widowed 
mother, the orphan child, he is yet alive. He is remem- 
bered as he would wish to be. 

The beautiful lines, sung at his request, as his cher- 
ished friends pay their last tribute, tell us how to cherish 
the recollections of a life full of noble deeds: 

" Fading away like the stars of the morning, 
Losing their light in the glorious sun ; 
So let me pass away, gently and lovingly, 
Only remembered by what I have done. 

" So in the harvest, if others may gather 

Sheaves from the fields that in spring I have sown, 
Who plowed or sowed matters not to the reaper, 
I'm only remembered by what I have done. 

" Fading away like the stars of the morning. 
So let my name be, unhonored, unknown ; 
Here or up yonder I must be remembered. 
Only remembered by what I have done." 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



016 090 591 8 A 



